The son of Mexican immigrants, Luis J. Rodriguez began writing in his early teens and has won national recognition as a poet, journalist, fiction writer, children's book writer, and critic. Currently working as a peacemaker among gangs, Rodriguez helped create Tia Chucha's Caf� & Centro Cultural, a multiarts, multimedia cultural center in the northeast San Fernando Valley. He is the recipient of the 2021 Los Angeles Times Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement. Visit him at LuisJRodriguez.com.
"An absolutely unique work: richly literary and poetic, yet urgent
and politically explosive at the same time...A permanent testament
to human courage and transcendence."
-- Jonathan Kozol, author of Savage Inequalities
"Every spiky anecdote from a life of guns, razors, uppers, downers,
glue, heroin, sex, and early death supports this former gang
member's view of the violence as collective suicide. That
Rodriguez's memoir takes place...before the '92 L.A. riots only
makes this beautifully written and politically astute account more
compelling."
-- Suzanne Ruta, Entertainment Weekly
"Extraordinarily haunting and evocative."
-- Paul Ruffins, The Washington Post Book World
"Rodriguez's account of his coming of age is vivid, raw...fierce,
and fearless...Here's truth no television set, burning night and
day, could ever begin to offer."
-- Gary Soto, The New York Times Book Review
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